16 Responses to “If you build it, cups will come….”

Don’t like it. Basically the city (aka taxpayers) are giving Katz 125 mil to have a building that makes him money, but it’s owned by the city so no taxes, they didn’t want to increase the seat limit anymore than they did because it would impact demand (and therefore prices) and I’d lay odds that it goes over 450 mil…who picks up the overage?

Plus, I’ll believe the revitalize the downtown argument when I see it. It’ll be busy during game days, otherwise a dead zone (unless they put other stuff in there…but wouldn’t that revitalize downtown on its own? I think so).

Well the Jets appear to be flying again, Atlanta style. I guess there are merits to building a new rink. As for tax payer dollars, it will be nice to see a tangible result instead of the disappearing reappearing potholes we have.

tweet0EmailPrintEDMONTON – Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach says it’s too early to speculate on any potential provincial funding for a new downtown arena for the National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers.

While city council has voted in favour of pursuing negotiations with the Katz Group, which owns the team, Stelmach said the province hasn’t yet received a formal funding request.

The arena is expected to cost $450 million, with $125 million coming from the city and another $125 million to be raised through a surcharge on tickets. Darryl Katz of the Katz Group has pledged $100 million, but sources have yet to be found for a $100 million shortfall.

“Our legislation is very clear,” he said. “We cannot provide any direct funding to private enterprise.”

One of the stipulations that city council put on the project is that the arena and the land would be owned by the city but Katz and his company would be responsible for operating costs.

The city also wants Katz to promise he will keep the team in the city for the next 30 years.

Stelmach said he expects a proposal to come forward soon.

“We had a good chat with the mayor earlier. They’ll be working through a presentation and at some point he’ll be paying a visit to my office.”

He pointed out that any requests from Edmonton are likely to be matched by one from Calgary.

He states that “We cannot provide any direct funding to private enterprise” So, firstly he mentions no “direct funding” but that leaves the door open for other indirect channels no? Also & probably more important he brings up that funding cannot be provided to “private enterprise”; since Katz specified that the City of Edmonton be the owner of the arena (by no accident obviously), that should mean the arena could potentially qualify for funding couldn’t it?

Something that is seldom mentioned in regards to Rexall is that it’s in the shittiest neighborhood in all of Edmonton.

That may be a slight exaggeration, but not by much. Even when the Coliseum was brand new it wasn’t a good neighborhood. Trust me, I know; I grew up in that neighborhood and used to go to games in the Gardens and then the Coliseum.

Personally, I can’t wait to go to a game in a shiny, roomy new arena and I’m looking forward to being able to go to a bar or restaurant downtown after the game with hundreds of people I just watched the game with. Where can you go when you leave Rexall? The frickin’ Forum?

To those who say that having two arenas is wasteful, I say you can renovate Rexall all you want, but you can’t renovate the whole district. When players, reporters and rock stars come to Rexall Place, they’re seeing the very worst of Edmonton. No wonder nobody wants to come play here.

A question for you Edmontonians; will the new arena be closer to the airport or will the travel into downtown negate any potential time savings compared to Rexall? Just curious because I have heard the inconvenience of travel from the airport to Rexall was one of the reasons players were not “excited” to come to Edmonton on road trips.

John:
A question for you Edmontonians; will the new arena be closer to the airport or will the travel into downtown negate any potential time savings compared to Rexall? Just curious because I have heard the inconvenience of travel from the airport to Rexall was one of the reasons players were not “excited” to come to Edmonton on road trips.

The new building would probably cut down in travel time from the Airport but difference in travel time between the old arena and the new one would be minute as they are not all the far away from each other. It’s not really a big issue anyways as the Edmonton players would be traveling to the arena from there own accommodations, not the airport. I do not think it’s really an issue that would hurt us in attracting players to come to Edmonton. When Players say they don’t want to come to Edmonton it is usually because we are not a contender or their wives don’t like to fake-n-bake.

MetalOil: The new building would probably cut down in travel time from the Airport but difference in travel time between the old arena and the new one would be minute as they are not all the far away from each other. It’s not really a big issue anyways as the Edmonton players would be traveling to the arena from there own accommodations, not the airport. I do not think it’s really an issue that would hurt us in attracting players to come to Edmonton. When Players say they don’t want to come to Edmonton it is usually because we are not a contender or their wives don’t like to fake-n-bake.

So the time savings is negligable. Actually I was refering to road teams coming into/leaving Edmonton. I’ve read a few tweets & heard little tidbits here & there about visiting players whining about having to fly in from Van, etc., then having to drive half an hour to the hotel.

John: So the time savings is negligable. Actually I was refering to road teams coming into/leaving Edmonton. I’ve read a few tweets & heard little tidbits here & there about visiting players whining about having to fly in from Van, etc., then having to drive half an hour to the hotel.

Humm that is interesting. I have never heard of any such complaints from other teams players about the drive from the airport. Seems kinda fickle to me that a player would complain about that but I guess many athletes are kind of pampered these days. Don’t opposing players usually ride a charter bus from the airport to the arena or hotel anyways?

Tampa offers it’s players security transport to and from the rink. Philly is super scary by the rink. Chicagos is in major gangland. Also, Winnipeg’s drive from the airport to downtown…..let’s just say you don’t want to stop for toothpaste. Same with the downtown.

Rexall’s location is no big deal. These places usually get built on the cheapest land in years gone by. Now that trend is reversing somewhat, but there are still lots of major venues in neighborhoods that are way to scary to even compare with anything Edmonton has to offer.

Racki: Yah, really… I’ve heard worse stories about detroit’s drive through the ghetto too. i think it’s a similar lame trip here… But really, if they’re whining about that, they should stop being divas.

Very true! If I got paid as much as they did… you know what I mean 😉 The only “complaints” I can recall came from a Calgary Flame I believe, & another from BizNasty (sp?) so ya, it’s probably just a couple whiny divas for sure, not the majority of players!

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